Improvement in wooden boxes



, dotted tant @anni dtjlilirr;

WILLIAM GILBERT, 0F OATSKILL, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO. N. K. FAIR- BANK,or oHIcAeo, ILLINOIS. f

Letters Patent No. 108,700, dated october 25, 1870. l

IMPROVEMENT IN woooEN Boxes.

Be it knpwn that I, WILLIAM GILBERT, of Catskill, Greene county, Stateof New York, have in- -vented a new and useful Improvement in theGonstruction of Wooden Boxes, for service as fruit-boxes, salt-boxes,spice-boxes, housekeepers boxes, ladies work-boxes, or for any use wherelight strong boxes are l needed.

My present object is to save the expense of construction-labor informing the angular joints at corners, and making them without a break,in the cheapest and promptest manner.

The following specification, with the drawings hereto attached as partthereof, gives a full and perfect dc- -scription of my invention.

Similar letters in the different Iigui'esdcnote the 'same parts ot' theapparatus.

Figure 1 represents in perspective a box and its cover, made by myprocess or method.

Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, and (i, illustrations of the method of construction.

The box, fig. 1, is intended as a measure to hold grapes, berries, orfruit, for market purposes. When for other purposes, the cover K isadded.

The bottom and top pieces are thin squares, about one-eighth of an inchthick. l

The sides are-prepared by getting out and properly dressingstrips,jig.2, of the material, which may be of any kind ofwood havingtoughness enough of fiber for, that purpose.

These strips are made of the proper width for-the sides of the box.Thus, if' for quart measures, three and one-half inches; if for pintmeasures, two and three-fourths inches,-refcrence being had to thesquare of the bottom, and so on in proportion to the measure,

`liy the box required.

"lhe thickness is from two-sixteenths `to three-sixteenths of an inch. lI.

These strips are cut into lengths equal to the combined measure of thebottom. or top piece, and a lappiece beside, of'A convenient size forthe finishing of g the-box.

Fig. 5, Y represents the bottom or top of a square box of which iig. 2is to form the sides.

shown on au enlarged scale at g, fig. 3, or a curvilinear one, L, iig.4,v is made,lforming a miter-joint through about two-thirds of thesubstance of the wood. A sca-rp isalso cutgupon andalongthe lap-piecefrom e to j, from the top of the joint cut at e, to ay feather-edge atj, and a counterscarp to match it from -tlie upper edge ofthe oppositeend of the strip,'at and from a to r, on its under side.-

The strip thus prepared is next subjected to a soaking in hot water, ora steaming, in order to insure the bending of the wood without breakingits fiber. When in that state it is bent around. the bottom or toppiece, as shown in fig. 5, the cut of the joints inside forming a tightmiter-joint, unbroken on the outside, and requiring neitherbinding-slips nor glue to hold the angles together. 'The sides are thennailed to the bottom and top pieces, the laps broughtupon each othervand nailed together. The box is now completed.

The box may be made of any polygonal forni. Fig.

6 represents the constructional form and arrangement of one in anoctagonal shape.

The above-described method of construction, it must be manifest, is onewhich will introduce a better and cheaper article of its class into useand sale, than has been or is now.inI the market; in other words, a new,better and cheaper article of manufacture. VVh'a't I clair'rr as myinvention, and desire to secure by'Lette-rsPatena'is- As a new articleof manufacture, a wooden box with a bottom of suicient thickness tosecure and hold nails, in combination with a veneer partially cutcrosswise and bent around and secured 'to said bottompiece,substantially as described. n

Witnesses: `W'ILLIAM' GILBERT..

RICH. VARIOK Dn Wrrr, E. J. MILLER.

